I agree. I heard good things about it.
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So if I got the Edge Pro system, and I am fairly diligent about sharpening regularly, how many different grit stones would I need? Could I get away with buying just one fine grit stone?
Edge Pro has so many different kinds. Aluminum oxide, diamond matrix and basic diamond.
Also, what do people here think of ceramic knives for pairing knives? I have a Wusthof pairing knife that the tip just broke. I am deciding whether to get another German steel pairing knife or try a ceramic pairing knife.
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I take it to the guy usually once a year and, like others, use a steel before every use. He charges $1.00/inch for a regular knife and $1.50/inch for serrated.
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I still feel like you should have two grit stone. Unless you mean to do some of your sharpening elsewhere.
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[Note: I have not use the Edge Pro!]
I would think you’d need at least two stones to start, maybe three, depending on what your angles are from your sharpening guy. From my understanding, the Edge Pro has a limited range of bevel angle adjustment. If your sharpening guy has created bevels outside the range of the Edge Pro, then you’ll need to do a bit of regrinding to set new bevels.
But why? As a sharpener/maker, to me the Edge Pro seems like an overly complicated and expensive way to go. (Especially with this instruction on the Edge Pro site: “The Professional Edge Pro knife sharpener model is adjustable to work height, allowing you to stand straight and sharpen. This makes sharpening a blade for long hours more comfortable.” Wait, what? “sharpening a blade for long hours”?? I thought this was a quick-&-easy system?) Why not pick up a Spyderco Medium or Shapton 1000 grit ceramic stone (~$60) and an angle guide (~$10) and be done?
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I guarantee you’ll break the tip sooner on a ceramic knife. As a material, ceramic is extremely hard, extremely brittle, and very fragile in the thinness of a knife blade. Broken tips are common casualties, as are horribly chipped edges.
Can you say more about angle guides? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of these, and it might be just what I need! How about one of these?
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the Edge Pro has a very generous angle range - this is ‘to the dot’ and one can adjust past the dot:
Red dot = 15’ @ “bottom” of post - shallowest angle
Green = 18’
Yellow = 21’
Blue = 24’
I bought the 5 stone set - but 220, 320, 600 are the most frequently used - but I don’t allow the knives to get to the butter knife stage before sharpening.
I knew something is different. I just looked up this from EdgePro. Hope this help to convert for others.
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I can’t stand a dull knife. So, in my kitchens it’s more about keeping them sharp than getting them sharp. I have an excellent steel and a couple ceramic hones. I touch the knives up all the time. I have a good sharpener who charges me $6 per knife but that’s a friend price. I take the big knives to him a couple times a year. Truthfully though, I have stones & I sharpen them better than he does but it’s about time so its a lot easier to give them to him.
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Hi shrinkrap! Between those two I’d choose the Naniwa version. The wedges in the blue multi-angle set are too narrow (IMO) and I think you can end up unevenly grinding your blade. Also, I don’t feel you really need that many variations in angles.
It’d be nice to know what angle the Naniwa is set at. I’m sure they’ve picked two common angles (15 and 22?). The angles won’t make as much of a difference as regularly maintaining your edges will. 
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I feel the multi angle one is simply for “get a feel” and then remove them. I agree. That many angles is too refined. The Naniwa knife sharpening wedge is unlikely to have a true angle. The reason is that it clips at the spine of a knife and then raise it by a set height – as such the angle depends on the width (knife spine to knife edge distance). The angle will be narrower for a wider knife like a Chinese slicer/cleaver.
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Appreciative and keeping up with the comments, but barely.
I’m aspiring to sharpen garden tools right now.
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True, but I’ve found that small variations in sharpening angles don’t make a noticeable difference. Well, at least for me. 
My feeling is that the small difference will be unimportant for the home cook who’s simply looking to start keeping their knives in shape. (ANY maintenance is going to be better than NO maintenance, right?) Once the home cook uses it enough times, they can then remove it and try sharpening free-hand.
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I agree. Small difference like 14 degree vs 16 degree or 19 degree vs 21 degree won’t make much difference. I doubt I sharpen my knives at exactly 15 degree anyway. I just aim to be consistent. That Naiwa knife sharpening wedge clipping on a paring knife vs clipping on a Chinese cleaver will be pretty different. It is probably developed for chef knives (gyuto) and Santoku.
Since last year, I’ve been expanding my use of loaded stropping maintenance as a total solution by using two mounted strops. I’ve most recently focused on pure leather stropping to polish all my knives, and I’m now ready to further expand.
I’ve now reserved the “suede” side of my larger strop to my more aggressive white 1000 paste, my entire paddle strop to green 3000–reserving the hard leather side of my larger strop for leather only polishing.
I noticed slight tip damage on one of my knives–and it made me consider a low grit diamond pod (400) for repairs.
I also am considering a glass stone as alternative maintenance:
Has anyone heard of Mitsumoto Sakari? Should I forget about the diamond stones–or get several?
Or be happy with the solution I have?
Please advise.
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During my fling with Japanese knives the water stones were out about once a month because it was just plain fun to keep them really sharp. Now that I am back to the ancient carbon Sabatiers, they go easily for four to six months without sharpening but get regular honing. This keeps them more than adequately prepared for their daily work.
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An inexpensive bench grinder was an excellent investment to me. It kept the mower and other tools nice and sharp. Then I shifted from electric to a reel push mower, and the grinder gathers dust. In hind sight I should have gotten a little hand grinder. It might not be as quick on certain things, but it is more versatile.
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Not so very often, last time I think I lightly sharpened a few knives for Christmas and I still have plenty life in many knives. My philosophy has been that once a knife doesn’t cut a tomato well anymore, then I don’t use said knife for tomatoes anymore, but the same knife will still cut most other things just fine for me. So while I enjoy a sharp knife and also sharpening at least to an extent, I don’t necessarily want to use much time, nor to be often maintaining my knives.
With that preface, I have kind of preferred the idea of doing (even) touch up sharpening with waterstones, so I haven’t played with loaded strops and only have one smooth “straightening” steel, as I considered it when I bought it. Idea was to just align the edges where needed and do the abrasion with actual stones.
I have Japanese waterstones from 220 grit up to 12k and a worn diamond combo stone that I use for flattening the waterstones. The straightening steel I have is the F Dick polish, but I essentially haven’t used it at all to be honest. I remember that the steel did “work” though when I tried it in the beginning for some knives, so especially now that I have gathered more Sabs I will be trying it out again for those and my other softer knives like CCKs.
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